Fryatt hopes to ride Open outing to LVI

Tuesday, June 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Bolstered by his strong showing in last weekend's U.S. Open, UNLV graduate Edward Fryatt is in line to receive one of two at-large sponsor's exemptions to play in this year's Las Vegas Invitational.

Charlie Baron, tournament manager for the annual PGA Tour stop in Las Vegas, said that the Las Vegas Founders' Club executive committee has received Fryatt's request for an exemption and would take up the matter at next week's meeting.

"We're going to review Eddie's request and hopefully we'll have some sort of an announcement next week," Baron said. "He's a nice young man who has represented himself well and the city and the university well.

"The executive committee of the Founders' Club is meeting next Tuesday. Eddie has made a request for consideration and I'm sure that that's going to be on the agenda for Tuesday."

A source close to the LVI said Fryatt, who finished tied for 24th at the Open, had a "very good chance" of receiving one of the sponsor's exemptions for this year's tournament, which will be played Oct. 22-26.

The LVI can exempt four players into the 144-player field, but only two of those exemptions can be players of the tournament committee's choosing -- the other two are reserved for PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament graduates who otherwise would not be exempt.

Fryatt received a sponsor's exemption to play in the 1994 LVI after he turned pro following his senior year at UNLV. Playing in his first PGA Tour event, Fryatt failed to make the cut that year.

"I would love to have the opportunity to play at home again and hopefully take advantage of it this time," Fryatt said. "I hope it works out that I can get that opportunity, but I'm not taking anything for granted. We'll have to see how it goes."

Fryatt said he put in his request for an exemption into the LVI, as well as several other PGA Tour events, before he played in the U.S. Open. He is hoping his finish in the major would improve his chances to get into more PGA Tour tournaments.

Last year, the LVI granted exemptions to UNLV graduate Chris Riley and Tiger Woods. Riley missed the cut but Woods went on to become the second player to win the LVI after being granted a sponsor's exemption. Gary Koch won the tournament in 1988 after being exempted into the field.

Baron said the executive committee also will finalize which three courses will be used in the rotation for this year's LVI. The TPC at Summerlin will serve as the host course, but the satellite courses -- last year they were the Las Vegas Hilton Country Club and the Desert Inn Golf Club -- are renewed on a year-to-year basis.